Scope of the activity

The modern industrialised warfare that characterised the major conflicts of the 20th century, saw the mobilisation of a large percentage of the population and through growing mechanisation, the militarisation of vast tracts of land.

By the end of the Second World War around one fifth of the land area of the United Kingdom was occupied for military purposes. Land was required for munitions factories to equip the large citizen armies, for camps to house these forces, and extensive training areas to perfect mechanised military tactics. The 20th century also witnessed the development of military aviation that in turn required hundreds of airfields for its operations.

Since the early 1990s we have been at the forefront of understanding and protecting modern military remains. Some topics remained poorly understood and further research was required to determine their significance and to make sure they are protected.

Expected protection results

Protection results included:

The listing and scheduling of the nationally most significant monuments.

The projects were also designed to provide advice for individuals, local communities, and other organisations to recognise and assess the significance of modern military remains and to work for their protection through master planning, local listing and other measures.

Projects in this activity

First World War

2014 marks the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. We reviewed existing records of First World War related sites in England to identify gaps in knowledge and protection. This information will be used to start assessment projects of poorly protected classes of First World War remains.

A pilot project has been funded to develop a methodology for researchers to record the legacy of the First World War in their localities, and to produce electronic records that may be used to improve national and local records. Find out more about this pilot project and if you would like to get involved in documenting traces of the war in your area see the website of the Home Front Legacy Project, coordinated by the Council for British Archaeology.

The common image of the First World War is of the trenches of the Western Front. But, off our shores an equally deadly battle was waged on shipping by German warships, submarines, and mines. A number of coastal towns were also bombarded from the sea. A report on the East Coast War Channels highlights the measures that were put in place to safeguard allied shipping in the North Sea and looks at their submerged and terrestrial heritage.

Temporary Airfields of the Second World War

The Second World War saw major changes in the pace and design of building military airfields. To meet the increased needs of the war as economically as possible, hundreds of temporary airfields were constructed. Their remains are a challenge for conservation and protection, partly because they were built in materials that were originally only intended to last for the duration of the war. We commissioned an audit of these temporary airfields and you can download the report.

Defence disposals

During the next decade an increasing number of Ministry of Defence sites will be declared surplus to requirement and put up for disposal. In many instances, due to their closed and secretive nature, their historical significance is not well understood, and many are inadequately recorded in national and local heritage databases. We believe their heritage value to be significant in some cases.

Visits were made to 24 disposal and major redevelopment sites, these included:

St Georges Barracks, Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire.

Daws Hill, Buckinghamshire; Foxhill, Bath.

Warminster Road, Bath; and Ensleigh, Bath.

Defence School for Languages Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.

Turnchapel, Plymouth.

Arborfield Barracks, Berkshire.

Deepcut Barracks, Berkshire.

RAF Welford, Berkshire.

Desk based assessments were also completed for 40 Reserve Forces sites.

Corsham mines

Corsham Mines, a former Bath stone quarry, was used as an underground arsenal in the Second World War. It was further adapted during the Cold War to serve as the Central Government War Headquarters in the event of a nuclear war. We worked with the Ministry of Defence to safeguard historic murals, sites and artefacts at the tunnel complex, through monitoring their condition. This included using photographic surveys.

Cold War designation

The Cold War, the ideological stand-off between the largely democratic and market-oriented economies of the West and the communist dominated countries of the East, defined the bi-polar world of the late 20th century.

In England, it is the military expression of this stand-off that has left the most marked effect on the built environment. This project assessed the key sites of the period to ensure that the most significant remains that exemplify our national experience of the Cold War are safe-guarded. Structures and buildings on 17 sites were listed or scheduled. These include:

Elements of the Spadeadam Rocket Establishment complex in Cumbria have been scheduled, and a Blue Streak rocket in its handling frame, used as a symbolic as a "gate guardian" at the site has been listed at Grade II*.

A three-level bunker at RAF Daws Hill, Buckinghamshire, which served as the nerve-centre of United States Army Air Force European bombing campaign in the Second World War and during the 1980s was adapted to act as a targeting centre for Cruise Missiles and potential US European Command headquarters in the event of a war.

Find out more about protecting Cold War sites from our English Heritage blog "Heritage Calling" . You can also learn more about the military heritage of Foulness and Fort Halstead from two earlier research reports.

Aircraft crash sites

It has been estimated that around 10,000 military aircraft were lost during the 20th century over the United Kingdom. Of these only about a fifth are recorded on heritage databases. Although various wartime records of these losses do survive, their precise location was often poorly recorded or in the 21st century is no longer immediately obvious.

This project engaged with local Historic Environment Records (HERs) and volunteers to better identify locations of crash sites. A trial project with Kent County Council explored how HER volunteers might contribute to the enhancement of aircraft crash site records. In Kent 635 records were added to the HER, more than doubling the total. This improved information will allow greater respect and caution to be shown to crash sites threatened by development proposals.

Military communications

During the 20th century the application of telecommunications and wireless technologies transformed the conduct of military operations. Through the development of electronic eavesdropping, it also opened up the possibility of gaining an unprecedented knowledge about an enemy’s intentions.

Notable protected examples of interception sites include the code breaking centre at Bletchley Park and its outstation at Beaumanor, Leicestershire. From the 1930s governments recognised the value of the radio to broadcast propaganda to their citizens and beyond their borders. This project audited existing records and to identify gaps in our knowledge and in what needs to be protected. We commissioned a study of First World War wireless stations in England, enabling this class of site to be better understood.